zoonoses

With 22 fresh cases of dengue, the total number of patients suffering from the vector-borne disease in the national capital climbed to 992 on Saturday, even as authorities hoped that its spread could be contained as the mercury was showing a downward trend. The city has reported over 360 cases of dengue in the past 11 days. "With 22 fresh positive cases of dengue, the total has reached 992. There are 13 cases in which the infection has been contracted from outside Delhi," Debashish Bhattacharya, the D

With 22 fresh positive cases of dengue, the total has reached 992. There are 13 cases in which the infection has been contracted from outside Delhi   -Debashish Bhattacharya

 

My eight-year abusive relationship with Chester County has been characterized by cycles of abuse and joy with constant fear. Chester County has given me my family and friends. It has also given me Lyme disease three times with a few punches of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Erlichia, Bartenella, Babesia, to knock me down.  

Authorities in Banyuwangi, East Java, on Friday culled 13 of 40 dogs smuggled in from rabies-plagued Bali, despite a strong protest by animal rights activists. "We were forced to exterminate the 13 dogs although they didn't show any rabies-like symptoms, because we have instructions to cull all dogs originating from Bali, which has been declared a rabies pandemic area," said Banyuwangi agriculture quarantine agency head Imam Agung Samekto. He claimed only 13 dogs had to be culled, as one of the 40 dog  

Simple bamboo skirts attached to date palms can protect the trees' tasty sap from contamination by fruit bats. In so doing, the low-tech devices may prevent the spread of lethal Nipah virus, researchers in Bangladesh report at a meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Nipah virus is a relatively new pathogen that was first identified in 1999.  

A protein found in the saliva of ticks helps protect mice from developing Lyme disease, Yale researchers have discovered. The findings, published in the November 19 issue of Cell Host & Microbe, may spur development of a new vaccine against infection from Lyme disease, which is spread through tick bites. Traditionally, vaccines have directly targeted specific pathogens.

We believe that it is likely that many arthropod-borne infection agents of medical importance use vector proteins as they move to the mammalian host   -Erol Fikrig

 

New research funded mainly through the Wellcome Trust with additional support from the Medical Research Council shows that a new treatment route for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and its human form Creutzfeldt Jakob disease ( CJD ) could be a step closer. The research carried out by scientists at the University of Leeds was published today (November 20) in PLoS Pathogens. The team have found that a protein called Glypican-1 plays a key role in the development of BSE - otherwise known as Mad Cow  

San Diego County supervisors have unanimously approved several changes to the county's vector abatement and control ordinance. The changes will take effect Nov. 20 and will streamline enforcement procedures, give the county the right to inspect a property and to abate a public nuisance, and allow the county to collect costs for non-compliance. The primary goal of the county's vector control program, administered by the county Department of Environmental Health, is to prevent organisms—typically biting  

The first case of the West Nile virus in two years has been confirmed in Palm Beach County. Palm Beach County Health Department officials said Thursday that sentinel chickens in the central part of the county tested positive for West Nile virus. It is the first confirmed case since November 2007.

We are constantly monitoring chickens we have placed throughout the county   -Alina Alonso

 

A community in Papua New Guinea that suffered a major epidemic of a CJD-like fatal brain disease called kuru has developed strong genetic resistance to the disease, according to new research by Medical Research Council (MRC) scientists. Kuru is a fatal prion disease, similar to CJD in humans and BSE in animals, and is geographically unique to an area in Papua New Guinea. In the mid 20th Century, an epidemic of kuru devastated a population in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.